Categories: News

Global supply chain issues have impacted a range of goods and services, now a New York tradition is at stake.

The latest supply chain slump has sent bakery and deli owners from New York City to North Carolina into a frenzy, as they frantically attempt to secure enough cream cheese to keep sales from spreading thin, The New York Times reports. Logjams at shipping ports, a scarcity of containers to freight goods, and a lack of drivers to transport them across the country—all these consequences of a global pandemic have fueled an international supply chain crisis. One NYC bagel shop owner said he had enough cream cheese to last only 10 days, while a Brooklyn shop owner said he was preparing to drive to New Jersey to collect 2,000 pounds of the stuff. In 30 years, one Brooklyn deli-owner said, he’d never once been out of cream cheese. A Kraft Heinz spokeswoman (the company supplies the cream cheese most shops use as a starter base for their own recipes) said they’ve shipped out 35 percent more product than last year to clients in the food industry. The holiday season has only complicated matters; more Americans are ordering goods online, and bakeries are receiving more orders for cream cheese-based dessert recipes. But reports indicate the crisis could continue for months, if not years. Bad news for bagel businesses. For some of us—what is a bagel, really, without cream cheese? —Safiya Charles

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

2 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

2 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

2 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

2 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago